Fun things to do with laser pointers

[thundershock47]

Just to start off, I have a 5mw red, 5mw green (probably actually about 15mw), and a 5mw violet laser (also probably over-spec) Shining them in the night sky and what not is fun and all, but is there anything cool you can do with them? I mean I hear that violet lasers react differently when you point them at certain surfaces or somthing, So is there somthing I could try pointing it at and maybe make it "glow" or somthing? I don't want to spend a bunch of money on buying stuff, but is there anything cool you could think of to do just around home?

 

[thundershock47]

I found one of my brothers shirts with a glow in the dark logo on it, and it's pretty fun drawing on it with my violet laser! That's basically what i'm talking about, can you "draw" on anything else with a violet laser, or make anything glow, or do anything like that with a green or red one?

 

[John Capelo]

You can take a look at some diffraction gratings that will split the beam, or play around with prisms and other optics. Search around, there's lots of things, though the beam might not be visible with such a low power.

John